JFK on Nuclear Weapons and Non-Proliferation

Proliferation AnalysisNovember 17, 2003

Summary

In honor of the memory of President John F. Kennedy, we present some of his most
important comments on the dangers inherent in the possession of nuclear arms and
his proposals for stopping the spread of the the most deadly weapons ever invented. "There are indications because of new inventions, that 10, 15, or 20 nations will have a nuclear capacity, including Red China, by the end of the Presidential office in 1964. This is extremely serious. . . I think the fate not only of our own civilization, but I think the fate of world and the future of the human race, is involved in preventing a nuclear war."

In honor of the memory of President John F. Kennedy, we present below some of
his most important comments on the dangers inherent in the possession of nuclear
arms and his proposals for stopping the spread of the the most deadly weapons
ever invented.

"There are indications because of new inventions, that 10, 15, or 20 nations
will have a nuclear capacity, including Red China, by the end of the Presidential
office in 1964. This is extremely serious. . . I think the fate not only of
our own civilization, but I think the fate of world and the future of the human
race, is involved in preventing a nuclear war." Third
Nixon-Kennedy Presidential Debate, October 13, 1960

"The deadly arms race, and the huge resources it absorbs, have too long
overshadowed all else we must do. We must prevent the arms race from spreading
to new nations, to new nuclear powers and to the reaches of outer space."
State of the Union Address, January 30, 1961

"In the thermonuclear age, any misjudgment on either side about the intentions
of the other could rain more devastation in several hours than has been wrought
in all the wars of humanity." Report to the American
People on the Berlin Crisis, July 25, 1961

"Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when
this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman and child lives under
a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of
being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. The weapons
of war must be abolished before they abolish us.

Men no longer debate whether armaments are a symptom or a cause of tension.
The mere existence of modern weapons--ten million times more powerful than any
that the world has ever seen, and only minutes away from any target on earth--is
a source of horror, and discord and distrust. Men no longer maintain that disarmament
must await the settlement of all disputes--for disarmament must be a part of
any permanent settlement. And men may no longer pretend that the quest for disarmament
is a sign of weakness--for in a spiraling arms race, a nation's security may
well be shrinking even as its arms increase.

For fifteen years this organization has sought the reduction and destruction
of arms. Now that goal is no longer a dream--it is a practical matter of life
or death. The risks inherent in disarmament pale in comparison to the risks
inherent in an unlimited arms race.

In short, general and complete disarmament must no longer be a slogan, used
to resist the first steps. It is no longer to be a goal without means of achieving
it, without means of verifying its progress, without means of keeping the peace.
It is now a realistic plan, and a test--a test of those only willing to talk
and a test of those willing to act.

Such a plan would not bring a world free from conflict and greed-- but it would
bring a world free from the terrors of mass destruction. It would not usher
in the era of the super state--but it would usher in an era in which no state
could annihilate or be annihilated by another.

But to halt the spread of these terrible weapons, to halt the contamination
of the air, to halt the spiraling nuclear arms race, we remain ready to seek
new avenues of agreement, our new Disarmament Program thus includes the following
proposals:

First, signing the test-ban treaty by all nations. This can be done now.
Test ban negotiations need not and should not await general disarmament.

Second, stopping the production of fissionable materials for use in weapons,
and preventing their transfer to any nation now lacking in nuclear weapons.

Third, prohibiting the transfer of control over nuclear weapons to states
that do not own them.

Finally, halting the unlimited testing and production of strategic nuclear
delivery vehicles, and gradually destroying them as well." Address Before the General Assembly of the United Nations,
New York City, September 25, 1961

"World order will be secured only when the whole world has laid down these
weapons which seem to offer us present security but threaten the future survival
of the human race. That armistice day seems very far away. The vast resources
on this planet are being devoted more and more to the means of destroying, instead
of enriching human life but the world was not meant to be a prison in which
man awaits his execution."State of the Union Address,
January 11, 1962

"Neither the United States of America nor the world community of nations
can tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation,
large or small. We no longer live in a world where only the actual firing of
weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation's security to constitute
maximum peril. Nuclear weapons are so destructive and ballistic missiles are
so swift, that any substantially increased possibility of their use or any sudden
change in their deployment may well be regarded as a definite threat to peace."
Report to the American People on the Soviet Arms Buildup in
Cuba, October 22, 1962

"I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense
in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear
forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense
in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive
force delivered by all the allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes
no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would
be carried by wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe
and to generations yet unborn.

The one major area of these negotiations where the end is in sight, yet where
a fresh start is badly needed, is in a treaty to outlaw nuclear tests. The conclusion
of such a treaty, so near and yet so far, would check the spiraling arms race
in one of its most dangerous areas. It would place the nuclear powers in a position
to deal more effectively with one of the greatest hazards which man faces in
1963, the further spread of nuclear arms. It would increase our security--it
would decrease the prospects of war. Surely this goal is sufficiently important
to require our steady pursuit, yielding neither to the temptation to give up
the whole effort nor the temptation to give up our insistence on vital and responsible
safeguards."Commencement Address at American
University, June 10, 1963

"Eighteen years ago the advent of nuclear weapons changed the course of
the world as well as the war. Since that time, all mankind has been struggling
to escape from the darkening prospect of mass destruction on earth. In an age
when both sides have come to possess enough nuclear power to destroy the human
race several times over, the world of communism and the world of free choice
have been caught up in a vicious circle of conflicting ideology and interest.
Each increase of tension has produced an increase of arms; each increase of
arms has produced an increase of tension.

Yesterday a shaft of light cut into the darkness. Negotiations were concluded
in Moscow on a treaty to ban all nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space,
and under water. For the first time, an agreement has been reached on bringing
the forces of nuclear destruction under international control-a goal first sought
in 1946 when Bernard Baruch presented a comprehensive control plan to the United
Nations.

A war today or tomorrow, if it led to nuclear war, would not be like any war
in history. A full-scale nuclear exchange, lasting less than 60 minutes, with
the weapons now in existence, could wipe out more than 300 million Americans,
Europeans, and Russians, as well as untold numbers elsewhere. And the survivors,
as Chairman Khrushchev warned the Communist Chinese, "the survivors would
envy the dead." For they would inherit a world so devastated by explosions
and poison and fire that today we cannot even conceive of its horrors. So let
us try to turn the world away from war. Let us make the most of this opportunity,
and every opportunity, to reduce tension, to slow down the perilous nuclear
arms race, and to check the world's slide toward final annihilation.

I ask you to stop and think for a moment what it would mean to have nuclear
weapons in so many hands, in the hands of countries large and small, stable
and unstable, responsible and irresponsible, scattered throughout the world.
There would be no rest for anyone then, no stability, no real security, and
no chance of effective disarmament. There would only be the increased chance
of accidental war, and an increased necessity for the great powers to involve
themselves in what otherwise would be local conflicts.

If only one thermonuclear bomb were to be dropped on any American, Russian,
or any other city, whether it was launched by accident or design, by a madman
or by an enemy, by a large nation or by a small, from any corner of the world,
that one bomb could release more destructive power on the inhabitants of that
one helpless city than all the bombs dropped in the Second World War."
Address to the American People on the Nuclear
Test Ban Treaty, July 26, 1963

End of document

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